Healthandsoc_7

HEALT AND SOCIETY – 7TH TOPIC
DEFINITIONS OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS
I. Definitions of Health
The world around us is becoming progressively interconnected and complex and human
health is increasingly perceived as the integrated outcome of its ecological, social-cultural,
economic and institutional determinants. Therefore, it can be seen as an important high-
level integrating index that reflects the state –and, in the long term, the sustainability- of our
natural and socio-economic environment.
Good health for all populations has become an accepted international goal, but good health
means different things to different people, and its meaning varies according to individual
and community expectations and context.
This subjectivity makes it very difficult to define (good) health. Table 2.1 gives several
examples of existing definitions of health, divided into three groups:
1) definitions describing health as a state,
2) definitions describing health as a resource or capacity and
3) definitions describing health as an outcome.
Table 2.1: Definitions of health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity (6).
Health is the absence of diseases and disability (7).
Health is the condition of being sound in body, mind or general spirit, especially freedom from physical
disease or pain (8).
Health is a condition in which all functions of the body and mind are active (9).
Optimal health is a balance of physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being (10).
Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities (11).
Health in human beings is the extent of an individual’s continuing physical, emotional, mental and social
ability to cope with his environment (12).
Health as an integrated method of function, which is oriented toward maximising the potential of which the
individual is capable of within the environment where he is functioning (13).
Health is the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life’s challenges and changes (14).
Health is an outcome of family functional and social support, resourcefulness and versatility (15).
Population health is determined by a complex mixture of genetic, environmental and social factors, as well as
individual behaviour (16).
There’s no single, all-purpose definition of health that fits all circumstances, but there many
concepts such as health as normality, the absence of disease or the ability to function.
II. Scientific definition vs. subjective interpretations of health
1
Sociology’s interest in health emerged in part in reaction to the biomedical model which
focused primarily on disease. A more holistic approach to health and healing, sociologists
argue, must encompass the idea of positive health and well-being.
 The WHO definition calls attention to the fact that being healthy involves much more
than simply determining if a person ill or injured. Being healthy also means having a
sense of well-being. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (WHO Constitution, 1946) →
o Critics: This model can be considered as a world health program, with health-
political aspects.
o The term of well-being is difficult to apply in the sense of sociology. (Because of
wide-ranging dimensions of its meanings.)
 The concept of health itself needs to be explored and such an exploration must take lay
perspectives into account. →We can define a dichotomy between scientific-positivistic
and the subjective individual approach of health and illness. There is a fundamental
difference between the biomedical model and the more holistic model held by lay people.
An example: somebody describes his/herself healthy despite a clinically recognised
disease – diabetes. (Blaxter -1995)
 Laypersons tend to view health as the capacity to carry out their daily activities. That is,
many people consider health to be a state of functional fitness and apply this definition to
their everyday lives.
What constitutes health?

→ Symbolic interactionists: they reject the notion that illness is a direct result of some form
of disease; instead they perceive it is a form of social deviance. What constitutes illness is a
result of social definition. → It is difficult to define the boundaries between the condition of
health and illness and the transition between them is not so clean-cut and straight. We have
only the ideal type of health in our mind, we never identify the perfect condition of health in
the reality. In that sense the health is a social construction (and construction of the mind). The
objective measurement illness is problematic too, because lot of health problem exist on the
edge of irregular and illness.
Example: alcoholism → new paradigm: the illness conception of alcoholism has be changed
by the concept which consider this question as a social problem. (new expression: individuals
with problematic drinking, alcohol problems) (experimental definition)
Different approaches of several sciences about health and illness
a.) The model of somatic medicine→ biomedical model

b.) The sociological model:
Good health is a prerequisite for the adequate functioning of any individual or society. If
our health is sound, we can engage in numerous types of activities. But if we are distressed,
ill, injured, we may also become so preoccupied with our state of health that other pursuits are
of secondary importance. The functional definition implies the ability to participate in normal
social roles.
↓
T. Parsons: → trichotomous structure of health.
According to the functionalist definition of health below, illness affects at the same time on
the somatic, social and psychic dimension of life. The sick person’s obligations aim the
2
reconstitution of health, therefore illness leads to social discharge (If you are sick you don’t
have to work, just rest or stay in bad. Your have to do everything to be healthy again.)
↓
The society reacts on the somatic and psychic changes of the body.
- Due to the perception and medical definition (= diagnosis) of the changed somatic condition
the individual’s identity and activity will change, as well. → new individual rights and
duties
→ René Dubos (1981): health can be defined as the ability to function. This does not mean
that healthy people are free from all health problems. It means they can function to the point
that they can do what they want to do.
- Thomas McKeown: we know from personal experience that the feeling of well-being is
more than the perceived absence of disease and disability. Many influences – social,
religious, economic, personal and medical contribute to such a state. The role of medicine in
health promotion is the prevention of illness and premature death and care of the sick and
disabled. Thus medicine’s task is to not to create happiness, but to remove a major source of
unhappiness –disease, disability –from people’s live. → human is a bio-psycho-social being
Bibliography:
Cockerham: W.: Medical Sociology. 10th Edition; 2007, pp. 7-8. ; pp. 147-153.
Huynen, Maud - Martens, Pim - Hildering Hank: The health impacts of globalization: a
conceptual framework. Maastricht University – Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Agency, 2005.

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HEALT AND SOCIETY – 7TH TOPIC

DEFINITIONS OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS

Table 2.1: Definitions of health

II. Scientific definition vs. subjective interpretations of health

What constitutes health?

Different approaches of several sciences about health and illness

a.) The model of somatic medicine→ biomedical model

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